Cambian Scarborough School

Cambian Scarborough School Unit 11, Plaxton Park, Cayton Low Road, Eastfield, Scarborough, North Yorkshire YO11 3BQ

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The proprietor and school leaders have ensured that full compliance with the independent school standards has been maintained.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 School leaders have successfully addressed the areas for improvement from the previous inspection, relating to teaching and learning, by providing broader training to support specialist subject teachers.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Parents and carers are very positive about the school and say that all aspects of their child’s academic and social development are improving since joining the school.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Pupils feel safe in the school and are at ease in lessons and at break and lunchtimes.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Pupils’ personal development is a strength of the school. This is because leaders ensure that there is a wide range of enrichment activities available that build pupils’ self-confidence and social skills. These activities include a whole- school residential visit, the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme and work experience.  Governors know the school well and contribute effectively to school improvement, due to the wide range of skills and experience on the governing board.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Pupils have access to a broad curriculum, which provides recognised qualifications that support pupils’ progression to further education and training when they leave the school.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Since the previous inspection, school leaders have improved the amount of information they gather on pupils’ achievement. However, the analysis of this information remains underdeveloped and, as a result, is not yet fully informing decisions about how to improve pupils’ outcomes.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 Pupils are proud of their school and the majority have attitudes to learning that lead to improved outcomes over their time in the school. However, a minority of pupils do not attend well enough and this limits their progress.

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Summary of key findings for parents and pupils

 The school meets the requirements of the schedule to the Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 (‘the independent school standards’) and associated requirements.

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What does the school need to do to improve further?

 Improve further the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by ensuring more effective analysis of assessment information in order to evaluate the impact of the strategies put in place to support pupils’ academic progress and skills development.  Improve outcomes for pupils by improving attendance through: – more rigorously checking pupils attendance records – evaluating more effectively the impact of the strategies put in place to support pupils’ regular attendance.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

 The proprietor and school leaders ensure that all aspects of the independent school standards are met. Leaders organise and manage the school well.  School leaders have well-established routines regarding pupils’ conduct in school, which pupils respect and parents appreciate.  School leaders have high expectations with regard to staff training. All staff have access to corporate training provided by the proprietor group, as well as additional training tailored to the subject interests and skills development required by individual teachers. As a result of the investment in training, specialist subject teachers are more confident in teaching the curriculum and this is leading to a broader choice of examination course for pupils.  The headteacher records of observing teaching and learning are detailed well, using a variety of methods. These explain what staff need to do to improve their teaching. This

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

information feeds into a robust performance management system, which contributes effectively to school improvement.  Staff have confidence in school leaders and report that they feel well supported and have access to professional development, which is helping them to improve.  School leaders have developed a curriculum that is well designed to meet external expectations, statutory requirements and the needs of individual pupils. School leaders have provided a curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils and prepares them for life in modern Britain.  School leaders have invested in assessment systems to generate more accurate information on pupils’ progress and attendance. The use of assessments when pupils first join the school has become more established since the last inspection. However, the evaluation and application of this information by school leaders remains limited and is not

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Good

supporting teaching and learning as effectively as it could do.  School leaders use various assessment and tracking tools in order to increase the amount of information available on how pupils are progressing in English and mathematics. While this has provided more information on pupils’ performance, there is no whole-school system to tell leaders which teaching and learning strategies promote the best outcomes for pupils.  The analysis of attendance data is not linked sufficiently to a review of the strategies that the school uses to improve attendance. This means school leaders do not have a clear view as to what works well and what needs to be revised in order to improve attendance.

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Governance

 The governing board continues to invest in the school, ensuring that all aspects of the independent school standards are met. The school premises are well presented and provide welcoming and well-resourced learning spaces.  The governing board have invested in specialist subject teachers and added to staff skills through effective training.  The governing board has a wide range of skills and experience. This means that governors provide an effective level of challenge and support to the headteacher.  The governors are well informed. They ensure that they receive information regularly in the form of weekly reports on key performance indicators, and in half-termly governance meetings with the headteacher and senior staff.  The local representative of the governing board visits the school frequently and, as a result, knows the school well and provides effective support and challenge to the headteacher.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective. The headteacher has ensured that the school’s policy and procedures for safeguarding and child protection are on the school website and are comprehensive and easily understood. The headteacher ensures that systems to promote and monitor the safety and well-being of pupils are well established and taken seriously by all staff.  The headteacher knows pupils well, and the detail in child protection files shows the level of care and diligence taken with every concern raised by pupils.  The headteacher works closely with local authority partners to ensure that there is adequate support and involvement from other agencies when needed to support pupils.  The positive relationships that are evident around the school contribute to the safety of pupils.  The proprietor provides high-quality induction and training in safeguarding and child protection, and audits training profiles frequently to ensure that all staff are up to date

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Safeguarding

with their training and are meeting the expectations of the governing board.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

 Teachers plan well for the individual needs of pupils and this allows pupils to experience a sense of achievement, which leads to increasing confidence about learning. For example, a comment was that: ‘Teachers had taught me to learn really well and given me a future.’  Teachers’ strong subject knowledge is evident in the interesting lessons that they devise. For example, a practical experiment to judge the strength of molecular bonds kept the Year 11 group highly engaged.  Teachers have high expectations of pupils to tackle challenging topics in lessons. In English, for example, workbooks showed pupils successfully engaged with a module about dystopian literature.  The positive relationships between staff and pupils help to build pupils’ resilience in learning. In one English lesson, for example, all pupils managed to read their own stories aloud in class because they trusted the encouragement given by the adults who were

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Good

supporting them.  The assessment information provided by school leaders helps the teachers plan appropriate tasks for the different ability groups observed by inspectors. However, school leaders recognise that there is more work to do to analyse pupils’ performance in order to maximise the impact of class-based support.  Parents report that leaders keep them very well informed about the progress of their child. They believe that all staff have a good understanding of their child’s needs.

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Personal development and welfare

 The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is good. Parents value the work of the school. They particularly value the way in which the school provides opportunities to help their child grow and mature.  Pupils learn much from experiencing visits out in the locality, from guest speakers from a range of faith groups and from a whole-school residential visit. Pupils can follow the Duke of Edinburgh’s bronze award and learn first aid, as well as volunteering in their local community and organising a residential expedition. All of these contribute significantly to the development of pupils’ self-esteem and social skills.  Pupils say that they appreciate the life skills that they are taught in school. They also valued learning about how to solve friendship problems, as well as learning about safety on the internet, safety in relationships and the dangers of intolerant behaviour or

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Personal development and welfare

attitudes.  The headteacher commissions an external careers adviser, who provides one-to-one guidance sessions for pupils. The written action plans that come from these meetings show that pupils discuss a wide range of further opportunities for further education, training or employment. Pupils speak highly of the support that they receive to help them on to their next step in education, training or employment.

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Behaviour

 The behaviour of pupils is good.  Pupils feel safe in the school and this helps them to settle to their work. Pupils are mutually supportive of each other in lessons, and they are at ease around the site during break and lunchtimes.  Pupils take pride in their school and this is seen in how well they look after the classrooms and other areas in the school, and in the care that they take in their work books.  The school is generally an orderly environment but the behaviour of some pupils can be challenging at times. Staff manage instances of poor behaviour well.  The majority of pupils show positive attitudes to learning and attend well. However, some pupils do not attend consistently and this limits the progress that they make both socially and academically.

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Outcomes for pupils Good

 School leaders provide pupils with access to a broad range of publicly recognised qualifications. The range of GCSE subjects available has increased since the last inspection, and pupils’ attainment has improved. Leaders expect all Year 11 pupils currently in the school to complete GCSE courses in English, mathematics and science.  Teachers prepare pupils well for further education, employment and training, with all pupils securing an appropriate destination at the end of their time in the school.  Year 11 pupils do less well in the English GCSE examination than in GCSE mathematics, and this is evident in the end of Year 11 attainment data. However, the headteacher has revisited the schemes of work for English and has ensured that there is a whole-school approach to promoting reading. Staff implement this consistently across all subjects. Inspection evidence indicates that current pupils are making stronger progress and

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Outcomes for pupils Good

attaining more highly in English than in previous years.  Pupils’ work over time shows that those pupils who attend regularly make consistently strong progress from their individual starting points. The progress of pupils with additional learning difficulties is supported by carefully tailored support in literacy and numeracy, which meets pupils’ individual needs. For those pupils who do not attend regularly there are gaps in their knowledge and skills, which leads to them making slower progress than other pupils.

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School details

This inspection was carried out under section 109(1) and (2) of the Education and Skills Act 2008, the purpose of which is to advise the Secretary of State for Education about the school’s suitability for continued registration as an independent school.

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School details

Type of school Other independent special school

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School details

Website www.cambiangroup.com/childrensservices/s pecialisteducationservices/esddayschools.asp x Email address education@cambiangroup.com

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School details

Date of previous inspection 28 April 2015

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Information about this school

 This is a special school for pupils aged eight to 18 with social, emotional and mental health needs. Pupils with severe learning difficulties and autistic spectrum disorder are also now on roll.  All pupils have an education, health and care plan and this is a requirement to be admitted to the school.  The school has capacity for 18 pupils with 17 pupils on roll at present.  The school has as staff team of 11 (headteacher, three teachers, five instructors and two learning support assistants).  The school was last inspected on 28 April 2015. There has been no change of headteacher since that inspection, but there is a new chair of the governing body.  The proprietor group provides the function of governance in the form of the governing board, which meets with the headteacher every six weeks.  The school has no specific specialism or religious affiliation.  The school is based on one site and does not use any alternative education provision.

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Information about this inspection

 One inspector was allocated to this inspection and carried out the following inspection activities:  a tour of the school with short visits to all classrooms and social areas  a check of the school premises against the independent school standards  seven lesson observations  observations of the start of day and breaktime routines  scrutiny of pupils’ work covering all subjects  scrutiny of the school website and documentation checks  meetings with staff, headteacher and governors  contact with parents through face-to-face meetings and via Parent View, Ofsted’s online questionnaire, responses  meetings with social workers through face-to-face meetings  meetings with pupils  analysis of responses on the staff questionnaire.

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Inspection team

Patricia Head, lead inspector Ofsted Inspector guidance ‘Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Inspection team

Parent View You can use Parent View to give Ofsted your opinion on your child’s school. Ofsted will use the information parents and carers provide when deciding which schools to inspect and when and as part of the inspection.

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Inspection team

You can also use Parent View to find out what other parents and carers think about schools in England. You can visit www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk , or look for the link on the main Ofsted website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted .

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Inspection team

excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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